FORT EDWARD — The parents of a 13-year-old town boy who was killed in June by a shotgun blast inside their home admitted in Family Court Wednesday that they were neglectful in allowing their child access to the loaded firearm.

No punishment was handed down by Judge Stan Pritzker, to whom Nichole Cota and Louis Cota Sr. consented to a charge of civil neglect. Their son, Gary Cota, was killed June 5 when a shotgun he had been given for his birthday went off inside the bedroom of his family's Keating Avenue home. The blast struck the boy in the head.

Pritzker instead transferred the case and the punishment for the neglect charges to a Family Court judge in Clinton County, where the Cotas now live with their four surviving children and three of their nieces they were caring for at the time of Gary's death.

The Clinton County judge has several options to resolve the case, including placing the children in foster care or adjourning the case in anticipation of dismissal. Child custody cases involving the Cotas' children are also pending in Clinton County.

At a November hearing, Pritzker was open to dismissing the charges after a year of monitoring, but said he wanted time to look into the family's living situation in the Plattsburgh area. The custody cases and a pending statutory rape charge against Louis Cota Sr. factored into Pritzker's decision to delay his ruling.

Louis Cota Sr. and Nichole Cota have separated since their son's death.

Louis Cota Sr., 36, is in custody after being charged with having sex with a 14-year-old girl in Clinton County.

After Wednesday's hearing, Nichole Cota said that all seven of their children and the nieces they were caring for are living with family in the Plattsburgh area. The children are between nine months old and 13 years old.